What it is
Canonical name: Tungsten. 1
Known alias: W. 1
Stable external identifier: No stable external identifier was specified in the source report. 1
Key facts from the metal fitness atlas
Tungsten was analyzed as an essential metal in the cross-species Pan-Bacterial Metal Fitness Atlas, which integrated 559 experiments across 31 organisms and 16 metals. 1
Tungsten-associated fitness defects showed strong core-genome enrichment: 303 important genes had a core fraction of 0.947, a core-fraction delta of +0.145, an odds ratio of 4.98, and p=5.3e-14. 1
The tungsten core-fraction delta was among the strongest observed in the atlas and was exceeded by manganese (+0.198), zinc (+0.151), and molybdenum (+0.148). 1
Across essential metals—iron, molybdenum, tungsten, selenium, and manganese—the mean core-fraction delta was +0.148, nearly double the toxic-metal delta of +0.081; this difference was significant by one-sided Mann-Whitney U testing (U=39, p=0.015). 1
The report found that metal-important genes overall were 87.4% core, compared with 76.9% core for baseline genes (OR=2.08, p=4.3e-162), supporting a model in which tungsten-associated fitness effects can reflect conserved cellular functions rather than only accessory resistance mechanisms. 1
A later specificity analysis refines this atlas-level view: 173 of 306 tungsten-important gene records (56.5%) were classified as metal-specific, meaning they had significant fitness defects under metal stress but a sick rate below 5% across 5,945 non-metal experiments. 2
The specificity analysis also supports the broader distinction between conserved general stress functions and specialized metal determinants: tungsten ranked among the metals with a relatively high metal-specific fraction, while metal-specific genes were still strongly core-associated overall. 2
These findings support the metal cross-resistance concept by placing tungsten-associated fitness effects within a broader pattern of conserved, core-genome metal-stress functions alongside specialized accessory resistance functions. 1
The atlas cautions that metal concentrations were not normalized by dose or tolerance threshold, so tungsten fitness effects should not be compared directly across organisms without accounting for relative exposure. 1
Related pages
- Pan-Bacterial Metal Fitness Atlas — source-project summary.
- Metal-Specific vs General Stress Genes — specificity analysis of metal-important genes.
- metal-cross-resistance — cross-metal conservation and shared fitness effects.
- pangenome-integration — integration of fitness phenotypes with core and accessory genome structure.
- molybdenum — comparison with another essential metal analyzed in the atlas.
- iron — comparison with another essential metal analyzed in the atlas.